The Mill River Redemption Read Free Page B

eyebrows. “A one-butt kitchen?”
    “Oh,” Ivy said, “that’s just what I call a kitchen so small there’s only enough room for one person to be working in it. More thanthat and you’ll have butts bumping into each other. Do you girls like scrambled eggs?”
    Rose nodded, and Emily yelled, “Eggs!”
    After breakfast, Ivy showed them around the house. “I have a garden out back, but you can’t see it on account of the snow.” She moved from the kitchen into the next room. “And this used to be a dining room, but I made it my sitting room so I could use the front part of the house for the store. I never needed much space.”
    Josie glanced around. There was a disorganized desk against one wall. On the other side, a mismatched sofa and armchair faced an RCA television set. A miniature Christmas tree stood on an end table next to the sofa.
    “I don’t really watch television,” Ivy said, “but the set works fine. You’re welcome to use it anytime.”
    “Mommy,” Rose said, tugging at Josie’s hand. “Can we watch
Sesame Street
?”
    “Sure,” Josie replied. “And Mister Rogers, too.”
    After they had passed by the doors to Ivy’s bedroom and bathroom, Ivy unlocked a heavy door separating the sitting room from the rest of the house.
    “This leads into the store. Go ahead in.”
    Josie shepherded her girls through the door and gasped. The front room of the house was the largest, other than the attic, and every inch of space was occupied by books. Tall bookshelves lined the walls. There were stacks of books on the very tops of the shelves and in piles all over the floor.
    She looked nervously at the books crammed into the shelves, thinking how so much paper in such a small place surely posed a fire hazard. She wondered if Ivy kept a fire extinguisher within easy reach.
    The room smelled like warm paper and ink mixed with a faint aroma of breakfast that drifted in from Ivy’s kitchen. Interspersedamong the books were several small tables and squashy-looking chairs in various colors. A small writing desk and chair were shoved into one corner, and the center of the room was covered by a multicolored, well-worn throw rug that read WELCOME TO THE BOOKSTOP .
    Ivy followed Josie’s gaze down to the rug. “I had that made special when I first opened this place,” she said, and then stooped down to speak to Rose and Emily. “Do you two like books? Look over there.” Ivy pointed to the far corner of the room demarcated by small, colorful beanbags, where a sign on the wall read KIDS ’ CORNER . “There’s a big stack of ’em just for you.”
    Josie held her breath, fearing that perhaps the books would remind Rose of bedtime with Tony and upset her. Her eyes welled up as she remembered how Tony used to make a big deal out of bedtime with the girls, even on nights when he had to bring extra work home to finish after he tucked them in.
    “Time to pick your books,” he used to say in a booming voice that sent Rose and Emily scurrying to their little bookshelf. He would settle himself on Rose’s bed, and after jostling for positions on his lap the girls would sit, transfixed, while he read.
    For Rose in particular, those few minutes with her father were a highlight of her day. Josie had been amused and, at the same time, a little hurt when her older daughter told her one evening, “Hurry, Mommy, say good night and go downstairs so Daddy can read!” The playfully triumphant gleam in Tony’s eyes hadn’t helped.
    After she and the girls had been released from the hospital, they had stayed in a hotel paid for by the Red Cross. Josie had tried to maintain some sense of normalcy by buying some new books and reading to the girls at bedtime, but she hadn’t made it past the first few pages before Rose dissolved into tears, asking for her father. Now, instead of reading, Josie crawled under the covers with Rose and cuddled with her until she fell asleep.
    In the front room of The Bookstop, Josie was relieved